Shaping apparatus and shaping method for chassis

ABSTRACT

A shaping apparatus of the invention is used for shaping a chassis and includes a machine body, a first die, a second die and a plurality of shaping members. The first die is disposed at a side of the machine body and the chassis is suitable to be placed and positioned at the first die. The second die is disposed at another side of the machine body. 
     The machine body drives the second die to move relatively to the first die so that the second die moves close to or far away from the first die. The shaping members are detachably assembled to at least one of the first die and the second die so that when the first die and the second die approach each other, the shaping members press and deform the chassis thereon. A shaping method for a chassis is also disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 102112881, filed on Apr. 11, 2013. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to a shaping apparatus, and more particularly, to a shaping apparatus used for a chassis.

2. Description of Related Art

In recent years, with the development of computer servers, the traditional tower server featuring bulky shape and sizable space-occupation has been gradually developed into the rack server where several hosts with 1 U height (U refers specifically to the thickness of a rack server in the server field, 1 U=4.445 cm) are placed in a cabinet under a unified management.

Generally, each server unit in a rack server unit is slidably disposed in a cabinet Based on this concept, the entire device servo system can be seen as a big cabinet, and a plurality of horizontally-placed drawers (i.e., chassis) of server units are mounted in the cabinet. The server units in the drawers are connected to each other to increase the multiplexing of a server and achieve high computing performance.

Furthermore, under the premise of considering the manufacturing costs, usually a cabinet or a chassis is designed to have lightweight, but in order to advance the space utilization and performance of the server, various required components are placed in each chassis and occupy the space as much as possible. As a result, the weight of these components will cause a considerable load on the motherboard and the chassis. Generally speaking, the weight of these components will make the motherboard and the bearing chassis deformed along the gravity direction. But the cabinet of a rack server, due to space considerations, will not allow to reserve too much space between every server unit, so that when the components on the motherboard need to be maintained or fixed for failure, a lower-layer chassis may fail to be opened since at the time, the weight of the components makes the upper-layer chassis deformed towards the gravity direction to interfere with the lower-layer chassis. One of the existing solutions is to additionally process the underside of the chassis to construct an inward-convex shape, which however will occupy the inner space of the chassis to affect the layout of the inside electronic components. Another of the existing solutions is to dispose an additional metallic part at the underside of the chassis to strengthen the underside, which will increase the cost and need to perform riveting combination processes.

Accordingly, how to improve the structural features in the fabrication process of the chassis to overcome the above-mentioned deformation problem has become a subject eagerly to be solved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the invention is directed to a shaping apparatus and a shaping method for chassis with a simpler and stable structure and process, and a larger applicable range.

A shaping apparatus of the invention is used for shaping a chassis and includes a machine body, a first die, a second die and a plurality of shaping members. The first die and the second die are disposed at two opposite sides of the machine body. The machine body drives the second die to move relatively to the first die so that the second die moves close to or far away from the first die. The shaping members are detachably assembled to at least one of the first die and the second die so that the shaping members press and deform the chassis thereon when the first die and the second die approach each other.

A shaping method for a chassis of the invention includes following steps: first, providing a shaping apparatus which includes a machine body and a first die and a second die both disposed on the machine body, in which the machine body drives the second die to move relatively to the first die so that the second die moves close to or far away from the first die; disposing a plurality of shaping members on at least one of the first die and the second die; disposing and positioning a chassis at the first die; driving the second die to approach the first die, so that a first deformation generated in at least one region of the chassis by the shaping members pressing the chassis.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shaping members are made of polyurethane (PU) elastomer or rubber.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shaping apparatus includes at least one shaping member disposed at the first die and at least one shaping member disposed at the second die, in which an inner surface of the chassis is supported on a supporting surface of the shaping member located at the first die, and the shaping member located at the second die, moving along with the second die, presses an outer surface of the chassis with a pressing surface so as to deform the inner surface relative to the outer surface, in which the outer surface backs to the inner surface.

In an embodiment of the invention, the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the second die on the outer surface or the inner surface and the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the first die on the inner surface or the outer surface are not overlapped with each other.

In an embodiment of the invention, the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the second die on the outer surface or the inner surface and the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the first die on the inner surface or the outer surface are overlapped with each other, and the pressing surface and the supporting surface are complementary to each other.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shaping members have different surface profiles.

In an embodiment of the invention, the machine body is a stamping machine.

In an embodiment of the invention, parts of the shaping members are disposed at the first die or the second die in stackable way.

In an embodiment of the invention, chassis has an inner surface and an outer surface backing to each other, and the shaping method for a chassis further includes: disposing the shaping members at the first die and the second die respectively, in which at least one shaping member located at the first die has a supporting surface, at least one shaping member located at the second die has a pressing surface. A first region of the inner surface of the chassis is supported on the supporting surface; and pressing the outer surface of the chassis by the pressing surface of the shaping member located at the second die to deform a second region of the inner surface, in which the first region is not overlapped with the second region.

In an embodiment of the invention, the chassis has an inner surface and an outer surface backing to each other, and the shaping method for a chassis further includes: disposing the shaping members at the first die and the second die respectively, in which at least one shaping member located at the first die has a supporting surface, at least one shaping members located at the second die has a pressing surface. A first region of the inner surface of the chassis is supported on the supporting surface; and pressing the outer surface of the chassis by the pressing surface of the shaping member located at the second die to deform a second region of the inner surface, in which the first region is overlapped with the second region, and the surface profile of the supporting surface and the surface profile of the pressing surface are complementary to each other.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shaping method for a chassis further includes: obtaining a load distribution of a plurality of electronic components in the chassis of the server; calculating a second deformation of the chassis in at least one region, in which the direction of the first deformation is opposite to the direction of the second deformation, and the amount of the first deformation is greater than or equal to the amount of the second deformation.

In an embodiment of the invention, the shaping method for a chassis further includes: providing at least one shaping member stacked on the shaping members when the amount of the first deformation is less than the amount of the second deformation.

Based on the description above, in the embodiments of the invention, predetermined deformations of the chassis generated by stamping shaping members disposed at the first die and the second die onto the chassis enables the chassis effectively avoiding the deformation thereof due to the weight after disposing electronic components. In addition, the shaping members can be correspondingly disposed at the first die and the second die according to the disposing positions and the weight of the electronic components in the chassis. The shaping members are detachably configured with the first die and the second die, so that when the shape of the chassis is different or the types and the layout of the electronic components are altered, the shaping members can be re-arranged and assembled again, such that the predetermined deformation is generated in the corresponding places of the chassis. As a result, the shaping apparatus has a larger applicable range without being limited by the chassis and the layout of the electronic components and accordingly, the fabrication cost of the shaping apparatus is effectively reduced.

In order to make the features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the present invention is further described in detail in the following with reference to the embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a shaping apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial diagram of the shaping apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is another partial diagram of the shaping apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a partial diagram of a shaping apparatus according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a partial diagram of a shaping apparatus according to yet another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a shaping method for a chassis according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a partial equivalent diagram of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a shaping apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a shaping apparatus 100 is used to perform a shaping process for a chassis 200 of a server. By means of the shaping process, the chassis 200 gets predetermined deformation so as to, when electronic components are borne on the chassis later, counteract the deformation of the chassis 200 due to the weight of the components. The structure feature of the shaping apparatus 100 is described herein, followed by explaining the using method thereof.

In the embodiment, the chassis 200 has a bottom plate 210 with an inner surface Si and an outer surface S2 opposite to each other. After electronic components are disposed at the chassis 200, the weight of the components deforms the bottom plate 210 towards the outer surface S2 from the inner surface Si to form dents. Therefore, during fabricating the chassis 200, the bottom plate 210 needs to produce reverse predetermined deformations to counteract the sunken deformations of the chassis 200 after bearing the electronic components later.

To implement the above-mentioned scheme, the shaping apparatus 100 includes a machine body 110, a first die (i.e., a lower die 130 disposed at the machine body 110 herein, as shown in FIG. 1), a second die (i.e., an upper die 120 disposed at the machine body 110 herein, as shown in FIG. 1) and a plurality of shaping members 140. The machine body 110 is, for example, a stamping machine, and the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 are respectively disposed on the machine body 110 and opposite to each other. In the embodiment, the stamping machine has a fixing side E1 and a moving side E2, the upper die 120 is disposed at the moving side E2, the lower die 130 is disposed at the fixing side E1, and the machine body 110 drives the upper die 120 to move relatively to the lower die 130 by a control circuit and a mechanism (not shown) thereof. In this way, the upper die 120 is close to or far away from the lower die 130 for executing a stamping process.

The shaping members 140 are made of, for example, polyurethane (PU) elastomer or rubber and are detachably assembled to the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 respectively. In terms of the material characteristic, the hardness of the shaping members 140 is lower than the hardness of the chassis 200 and elasticity, so that the shaping members 140 serve as media to press and deform the chassis 200 without damage.

The chassis 200 is suitable to be disposed and positioned at the lower die 130, and meanwhile is supported on the shaping members 140 located at the lower die 130. Therefore, when the upper die 120 moves relatively to the lower die 130 and both approach to each other, the shaping members 140 located at the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 respectively press the chassis 200 to perform stamping deformation operation on the bottom plate 210. At the time, portions of the bottom plate 210 are protruded towards the inner surface S1 from the outer surface S2 thereof (the protrusion herein is opposite to the above-mentioned sunken deformation and serves as the reverse deformation of the sunken deformation). In this way, by means of forming the predetermined deformation on the bottom plate 210, these protruding places can serve as the supporting structure of the electronic components when disposing the electronic components at these protruding places. Thus, even the weight of the electronic components causes the deformations of the bottom plate 210, the above-mentioned protrusions with the predetermined deformations can counteract the possible deformations of the bottom plate 210.

FIG. 2 is a partial diagram of the shaping apparatus of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the shaping members 140 in the embodiment are assembled to the upper die 120 by fastening screws 150. The lower die 130 can be disposed in the same way. In following, the upper die 120 is taken as an example to explain the disposing. As shown by FIG. 2, the upper die 120 has a plurality of thread holes 121 arranged in array and the shaping members 140 have a plurality of through holes 141 corresponding to the thread holes 121, so that the shaping members 140 are fastened at a specific region of the upper die 120

The shapes, the quantity and the way of assembling them onto the upper die 120 of the shaping members 140 are not limited herein, and the designer can determine the corresponding disposing of the shaping members 140 on the upper die 120 according to the shapes of the predetermined deformations of the chassis 200 and the deformation amount at each position. In addition, other combining means repeatedly and detachably can be used in the embodiment. Furthermore, the shaping members 140 can also being disposed onto the same upper die 120 in different configurations, so that the upper die 120 and the shaping members 140 are suitable for shaping different chassis 200. In comparison with the exiting art where different shaping dies are fabricated according to different chassis and the different deformation positions and deformation amounts thereof but each die has a fixed shape and is only suitable for a specific object, the disclosure enables the upper die 120, the lower die 130 and the shaping members 140 to be repeatedly detached and allows to flexibly adjust the shapes and the amounts of deformation, therefore, the shaping apparatus 100 of the disclosure has a larger application range and lower fabrication cost.

In another unshown embodiment, when the predetermined deformations of the bottom plate of the chassis caused by the shaping members disposed at the upper die and the lower die are not expected, the user can add another shaping member stacked on the existing shaping member so as to increase the amount of deformation produced during stamping the chassis, in which the way of stacking the shaping member is not limited. In fact, the additional shaping member can be fastened or adhered with adhesives onto the die.

FIG. 3 is another partial diagram of the shaping apparatus of FIG. 1. The chassis 200 in FIG. 3 has been stamped by the shaping members 140. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, the shaping members 140 located at the lower die 130 have a supporting surface S3 that a first region A1 of the inner surface S1 of the chassis 200 positioned at the lower die 130 is supported on the supporting surfaces S3 of the shaping members 140. In addition, the shaping members 140 located at the upper die 120 have a pressing surface S4. Along with the upper die 120 approaches the lower die 130, the pressing surfaces S4 of the shaping members 140 press the outer surface S2 of the bottom plate 210. It should be noted that when the inner surface S1 (or the outer surface S2) serves as a orthogonal projection surface, the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 140 located at the upper die 120 on the bottom plate 210 is not overlapped with the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 140 located at the lower die 130 on the bottom plate 210. In other words, the shaping members 140 of the embodiment respectively disposed at the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 are staggered. Thus, when the shaping members 140 located at the upper die 120 press the bottom plate 210 thereon, the shaping members 140 will cause deformations at a second region A2 of the inner surface S1, in which the first region A1 is not overlapped with the second region A2 (in FIG. 3, the different regions A1 and A2 of the inner surface S1 are marked with hidden lines).

The shaping members in FIG. 3 have the same plane surface profiles, which the invention is not limited to. FIG. 4 is a partial diagram of a shaping apparatus according to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 4, in the embodiment, the shaping members 340 located at the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 respectively are in partially misaligned status by each other, i.e., the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 340 located at the upper die 120 on the bottom plate 410 of the chassis 400 is partially overlapped with the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 340 located at the lower die 130 on the bottom plate 410, and the shaping members 340 have different surface profiles. In the embodiment, the pressing surface S4 a formed by the shaping members 340 located at the upper die 120 and the supporting surface S3 a of the shaping members 340 located at the lower die 130 are complementary to each other.

FIG. 5 is a partial diagram of a shaping apparatus according to yet another embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5, similarly to the above-mentioned embodiment, the pressing surface S4 b formed by the shaping members 540 located at the upper die 120 and the supporting surface S3 b of the shaping members 540 located at the lower die 130 are complementary to each other, and the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 540 located at the upper die 120 on the bottom plate 610 is entirely overlapped with the orthogonal projection of the shaping members 540 located at the lower die 130 on the bottom plate 610. In other words, within the inner surface S 1 a of the embodiment, the first region A3 is overlapped with the second region A4.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a shaping method for a chassis according to an embodiment of the invention and FIG. 7 is a partial equivalent diagram of FIG. 3. Referring to 6, 3 and 7, in the embodiment, in order to effectively reduce the deformation of the chassis 200 caused by the weight of the inside electronic components, first in step S610, the designer needs to obtain a load distribution of a plurality of electronic components in the chassis 200 of the server, and calculating a second deformation F2 of the bottom plate 210 of the chassis 200. In other words, during designing the layout of the components of the server, the second deformation F2 must be known. Next in step S620, a shaping apparatus 100 is provided with the above-mentioned structure.

Then in step S630, a plurality of shaping members 140 are disposed at corresponding places of the upper die 120 and the lower die 130 according to the positions of the second deformations F2. In step S640, when the machine body 110 drives the upper die 120 to approach the lower die 130, the shaping members 140 press the bottom plate 210 of the chassis 200 to generate the first deformation F1 of the inner surface S1 and the outer surface S2. The direction of the first deformation F1 herein is opposite to the direction of the second deformation F2, and the amount of the first deformation F1 is greater than or equal to the amount of the second deformation F2. In this way, the predetermined deformations (i.e., the first deformations F1) formed in the chassis 200 by the shaping members 140, the expected second deformations F2 in the chassis 200 generated by the weight of the electronic components can be counteracted by the predetermined deformations, which further makes the chassis 200 in the rack (not shown) of the servers smoothly operated without structure interfere.

In summary, in the embodiments of the invention, the shaping members are detachably disposed at the upper die and the lower die of the shaping apparatus. By means of a stamping operation to produce predetermined deformations of the chassis, this enables the chassis effectively avoiding the deformation thereof due to the weight after disposing electronic components. In addition, the shaping members can be correspondingly at the upper die and the lower die according to the disposing positions and the weight of the electronic components in the chassis; i.e., when the shape of the chassis is different or the types and the layout of the electronic components are altered, by re-arranging the shaping members, the predetermined deformations can be formed at the corresponding places of the chassis. As a result, the shaping apparatus has a larger applicable range without being limited by the chassis and the layout of the electronic components and accordingly, the fabrication cost of the shaping apparatus is effectively reduced.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the descriptions above are several preferred embodiments of the invention only, which does not limit the implementing range of the invention. Various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. The claim scope of the invention is defined by the claims hereinafter. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A shaping apparatus, used for shaping a chassis and comprising: a machine body; a first die, disposed at a side of the machine body, wherein the chassis is suitable to be placed and positioned at the first die; a second die, disposed at another side of the machine body, wherein the machine body is able to drive the second die to move relatively to the first die so that the second die moves close to or far away from the first die; and a plurality of shaping members, detachably assembled to at least one of the first die and the second die so that when the first die and the second die approach each other, the shaping members press and deform the chassis thereon.
 2. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first die is a lower die and the second die is an upper die.
 3. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaping members are made of polyurethane (PU) elastomer or rubber.
 4. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, comprising at least one shaping member disposed at the first die and at least one shaping member disposed at the second die, wherein an inner surface of the chassis is supported on a supporting surface of the shaping member located at the first die, and the shaping member located at the second die and moving along with the second die presses an outer surface of the chassis through an inner surface of the chassis so as to produce relative deformation of the inner surface and the outer surface, wherein the outer surface is in the back of the inner surface.
 5. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the second die on the outer surface or the inner surface and orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the first die on the inner surface or the outer surface are not overlapped with each other.
 6. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the second die on the outer surface or the inner surface and the orthogonal projection of the shaping member located at the first die on the inner surface or the outer surface are overlapped with each other, and the pressing surface and the supporting surface are complementary to each other.
 7. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shaping members have different surface profiles.
 8. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the machine body is a stamping machine.
 9. The shaping apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein parts of the shaping members are disposed at the first die or the second die in stackable way.
 10. A shaping method for a chassis, suitable for a server and comprising: providing a shaping apparatus which comprises a machine body and a first die and a second die both disposed on the machine body, wherein the machine body drives the second die to move relatively to the first die so that the second die moves close to or far away from the first die; disposing a plurality of shaping members at at least one of the first die and the second die; disposing and positioning a chassis at the first die; and driving the second die to approach the first die, so that the shaping members press the chassis and a first deformation generated in at least one region of the chassis.
 11. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, wherein the chassis has an inner surface and an outer surface backing to each other, and the shaping method for a chassis further comprises: disposing the shaping members at the first die and the second die respectively, wherein at least one shaping member located at the first die has a supporting surface, at least one shaping member located at the second die has a pressing surface, and a first region of the inner surface of the chassis is supported on the supporting surface; and pressing the outer surface of the chassis with the pressing surface of the shaping member located on the second die to deform a second region of the inner surface, wherein the first region is not overlapped with the second region.
 12. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, wherein the chassis has an inner surface and an outer surface backing to each other, and the shaping method for a chassis further comprises: disposing the shaping members at the first die and the second die respectively, wherein at least one shaping member located at the first die has a supporting surface, at least one shaping members located at the second die has a pressing surface, and a first region of the inner surface of the chassis is supported on the supporting surface; and pressing the outer surface of the chassis with the pressing surface of the shaping member located on the second die to deform a second region of the inner surface, wherein the first region is overlapped with the second region, and a surface profile of the supporting surface and a surface profile of the pressing surface are complementary to each other.
 13. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, further comprising: obtaining a load distribution of a plurality of electronic components in the chassis of the server and calculating a second deformation of the chassis in at least one region, wherein direction of the first deformation is opposite to direction of the second deformation, and amount of the first deformation is greater than or equal to amount of the second deformation.
 14. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 13, further comprising: providing at least one shaping member stacked on the shaping members when the amount of the first deformation is less than the amount of the second deformation.
 15. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, wherein the shaping members are made of polyurethane (PU) elastomer or rubber.
 16. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, wherein the shaping members have different surface profiles.
 17. The shaping method for a chassis as claimed in claim 10, wherein the machine body is a stamping machine. 